31st Oct 2005 07:02
British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC31 October 2005 VODAFONE UK AND SKY TEAM UP TO LAUNCH SKY MOBILE TV • Nineteen mobile channels including Sky News, Sky Sports News, MTV, Cartoon Network, Discovery, Sky One and Living tv • Exclusive until 31 March 2006 to all Vodafone live! with 3G customers • Accessible on all 3G handsets • Sky Mobile TV free until January 31, 2006 • Exclusively live mobile coverage of the England cricket team's tour to Pakistan from Sky Sports Vodafone UK and British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) today announced an agreement tolaunch a mobile TV service in the UK. From tomorrow, the new service - SkyMobile TV - will bring a wide choice of channels, including 24-hour newschannels plus sport, entertainment and documentary programmes, to all Vodafonelive! with 3G customers. The deal between Sky and Vodafone UK marks a significant step forward in thedelivery of entertainment and information to mobile phones. Users will be ableto enjoy television programmes even when they are on the move and, for the firsttime, will have around-the-clock access to live breaking news and sports reportsfrom Sky News and Sky Sports News. From launch, all Vodafone UK customers with 3G handsets will be able to watchSky Mobile TV on their phones in areas of 3G coverage. There will be two SkyMobile TV packages offering a combined total of 19 mobile channels including SkyOne, Discovery, MTV, History Channel and Biography Channel. Some channels willbe broadcast 'as live' and others will be dedicated 'made for mobile' channels,featuring regularly updated blocks of programming. As a bonus service to celebrate the launch of Sky Mobile TV, Sky is giving allVodafone live! with 3G customers the chance to watch Sky Sports' exclusivelylive coverage of the England cricket team's tour to Pakistan. Starting with thefirst Test in Multan on 12 November, a special Sky Sports Mobile channel willoffer ball-by-ball coverage of all three Test matches and five One-DayInternationals. Until the end of January next year each Sky Mobile TV pack will be provided freeof charge (subject to Vodafone customer fair usage policy). From February 2006customers will be charged £5.00 per month for each of the Sky Mobile TV packs towhich they subscribe. The two Sky Mobile TV packs are: News, Sport & Factual: Sky News; CNN; Bloomberg; Sky Sports News; At The Races;Discovery Factual; National Geographic Channel; History Channel. Entertainment & Music: Sky One; Sky Movies; MTV (two channels*); Living tv;Discovery Lifestyle; Nickelodeon; Paramount Comedy**; Cartoon Network; Bravo;Biography Channel. * **One MTV channel will be available at launch featuring top MTV shows. Thesecond MTV channel and Paramount Comedy will join the line-up later in the year. Additional mobile channels are likely to join Sky Mobile TV over the comingmonths. "This is a highly significant day for both the mobile and televisionindustries," says Tim Yates, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone UK. "Two industryleaders in Sky and Vodafone have come together to provide the country's firstcommercially available mobile TV service available on such a wide range ofhandsets. This is not a trial on a very limited number of phones or a serviceavailable on a single make of mobile, but something that all our Vodafone live!with 3G customers can experience. We currently have over 250,000 3G subscribersin the country and 72% 3G population coverage across the UK. Mobile TV will be amainstream service." Richard Freudenstein, BSkyB's Chief Operating Officer, said: "Sky wants to givecustomers the flexibility to access our services in the way that they choose andVodafone is an ideal partner to help make this happen. With Sky Mobile TV, youcan now keep up with the latest news, sport and entertainment wherever you are.This is an innovative service that complements our existing pay-TV activities,extends the reach of Sky content and delivers an additional stream of revenue." Every 3G handset in Vodafone UK's extensive range can receive mobile TVservices. These include the original 3G handsets like the Sony Ericsson v800, aswell as the recently announced models for Christmas 2005, such as the Sharp 903,with its 3.2 megapixel camera and ultra clear Aquos screen. The launch of Sky Mobile TV is part of Sky's drive to give customers flexibleand convenient ways to watch its services. To add to the value of a Skysubscription, customers who subscribe to selected Sky digital packages and whohave a compatible handset can access news, sport and weather updates on theirphone with the 'Sky by mobile' service. As well as its launch tomorrow onVodafone live!, Sky Mobile TV will soon be available as an additional service onSky by mobile. This offer will be exclusive to Vodafone 3G customers until 31March 2006. -ends- Notes to editors: Vodafone live! with 3G customers in the UK will also be able to watch additionalchannels that are not part of Sky Mobile TV. Vodafone has launched mobile TV in six operating countries (Germany, Greece,Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain), three associate networks (Belgium,France and Switzerland) and one partner network (Austria). Vodafone live! with 3G customers have benefited over the last year from matchhighlights from the Barclays Premiership and The Ashes, as well as live coverageof The Open and The Vodafone Derby. In addition, they have had access tospecially made for mobile one minute "mobisodes" of 24 Conspiracy - a spin-offof the popular 24 - and 24-hour streaming of reality show Big Brother 6. About Vodafone UK Vodafone UK has 15.5 million customers and is part of the world's largest mobilecommunity offering a wide range of voice and data communications. On the 1stJanuary 1985, the first mobile phone call was made on the Vodafone network.Since then, Vodafone was the first to introduce SMS in 1994 and to make a 3Gvoice call in July 2001. Vodafone UK was the world's first mobile operator tointroduce international roaming, now connecting customers with standard roamingagreements in 182 countries, GPRS roaming in over 70 countries and 17 additionalcountries with 3G coverage. Following the launch of Vodafone UK's 3G/GPRS Mobile Connect data card in April2004, the company launched Vodafone live! with 3G in November 2004 offeringservices such as video-calling and music downloads. Vodafone's 3G UK populationcoverage currently stands at 72 per cent and the network is being continuallyexpanded. About BSkyB BSkyB is the operator of the leading multichannel television service in the UKand Ireland. Around 20 million viewers in 7.8 million households enjoy anunprecedented choice of movies, news, entertainment and sports channels andinteractive services on Sky digital, the UK and Ireland's first and most populardigital television platform. BSkyB's channels are available in 8.8 million homesvia cable and digital terrestrial television. Existing activities in mobilecontent include agreements with Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, 02 and 3 to delivernews and sports via SMS, WAP, MMS and 3G video. For additional information please contact: Ben Taylor/Julien CozensVodafone08454 [email protected] Robert FraserBSkyB020 7705 [email protected] This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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